


All the Colors in the World

by DenDragon14



Series: Dysfunctional Newsies [2]
Category: Newsies - All Media Types, Newsies!: the Musical - Fierstein/Menken
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Autism, Autism Spectrum, Birthday, Birthday Cake, Birthday Presents, Celebrations, Colorblindness, Fluff, Gen, M/M, friends - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-23
Updated: 2020-01-23
Packaged: 2021-02-27 03:48:40
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,414
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22350610
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DenDragon14/pseuds/DenDragon14
Summary: Elmer's birthday is just around the corner and Albert is excited to give his friend their very own pair of EnChroma glasses.
Relationships: Albert & Elmer & Romeo, Albert DaSilva & Elmer & Romeo & Jack Kelly, Albert DaSilva & Elmer (Newsies), Albert DaSilva/Elmer (Newsies)
Series: Dysfunctional Newsies [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1608244
Comments: 6
Kudos: 36





	All the Colors in the World

**Author's Note:**

> Hope you enjoy! This is something that I wanted to write just for the fun of it since I thought the idea was cute. If you have the time, please take some time to leave some feedback. Apologies in advance for any typos.

**All the Colors in the World**

Tomorrow would be Elmer's birthday and Albert was probably more excited than Elmer was. Birthdays normally weren't a big deal for him, or for any of his friends for that matter, but Albert was anticipating the time in which he could give his gift to Elmer. For the past several months, he'd been saving up money to purchase a pair of those fancy EnChroma glasses that would give a colorblind person to see all the colors of the rainbow and he was anxious to see what Elmer thought of them.  
  
"So where exactly are you leading us to, Albert?" Jack asked. "I ain't been to this part of town in a long while."  
  
"Almost there," he said, picking up his pace a bit. They came to the corner of the street and turned and came to a stop. "This is it."   
  
"An auto shop," Romeo said, confused. "Uh, okay? Did ya get us a car or something, Al?" Jack and Elmer chuckled.  
  
"Yeah, Al. A nice convertible or Porsche?" Jack asked. "How about a Lamborghini?" He recognized their words as sarcasm but the humor missed him by a mile. While the three of them laughed about their witty remarks, he wondered why giving them a car would be funny; if he were a millionaire he would have bought each of his friends a car simply because they were his friends and he had known these three for the majority of his life.  
  
Several weeks ago before the semester had started, when his mother had dragged him to the auto shop along with her while she got her car tuned up, Albert had met the Delancey brothers. If he had had any say in it, Albert would have stayed home, but his mother insisted on dragging him around town to help her with errands. After being dragged from home to the grocery store and then to the bank, by the time they finally reached the auto shop Albert's head was buzzing with noise as though a beehive had been shoved into his head. The noises inside the auto shop had been the breaking point for him. He'd been in the midst of sensory overload and his mother was not having it. He was sure, had they been in the privacy of their own home, she would have slapped him.

It was actually Oscar that had noticed what was going on with Albert and had taken him inside to the lounge/office where people could wait until their car was finished. He introduced Albert to Morris, who took one look at Albert and offered out a pair of noise-canceling headphones. Albert still had them today, but he felt like he should give them back even though Morris told him to keep them.  
  
Morris was like him. On the spectrum. So they understood each other to some extent, although Albert knew that autism differed with every individual. He'd learned quickly that their special interests didn't really have any sort of overlapping area. Music, movies, sports, and his friends were what kept Albert captivated whereas Morris' special interests were baking, books and his brother. Albert didn't know much about any of those subjects, but Morris seemed willing to listen to Albert blather on about his special interests, which was appreciated since a lot of the time if people got fed up in hearing him talk, they would tell him to shut up.  
  
But since he knew now that Morris was interested in baking, Al thought it'd be a good idea to ask if he'd ask him to bake a cake for Elmer's birthday. Al had the design all in his head, and he wanted it to be colorful, as though a rainbow had exploded on it. It would be the perfect way to reveal to Elmer all the colors he'd been missing in his life.  
The garage to the shop was open and Albert sighed, grateful that the shop was empty of cars for the time being; the last time he'd been in there, it had been overwhelming and his mother had grown extremely mad at him for "making a scene" and "looking like some nut case". At the moment, there was only one person in the shop. They stood by a tool chest, their attention focused on cleaning tools with a rag.

He glanced up from his toolbox as their little ragtag group entered, making more noise than necessary and Al recognized the engine oil-stained face of Oscar Delancey.  
  
"Hey, Al," Oscar said. His eyes turned over their little ragamuffin group, stopping to stare at Jack. "Kelly. Long-time, no see." He turned back to the tools he'd been putting away.  
  
"Since when do you know Oscar Delancey," Jack asked. Albert couldn't really read his friend's expression but he supposed that it was a mix of anger and something else he struggled to place.  
  
"Since when do you," Romeo echoed, eyebrow quirked in interest. Jack shoved him in the shoulder.  
  
"We went to high school together," Jack said, his voice bitter, "Oscar was nothing but a bully."  
  
"And we was just kids, Kelly," Oscar said, "Put the past in the past, why don't ya?" He turned his attention to Albert. "You looking for Mo?" Albert nodded and opened his mouth to explain the reason for his visit but Oscar just waved him off and went over the window that looked out into the workshop. He knocked on the window and then pointed at Albert and the rest of the gang.

After a moment, Morris stepped out of the office and made his way over to Albert and his pals.

"I didn't bring your headphones back," Albert said before Morris could speak. He rubbed the back of his neck sheepishly. "I'm sorry-" It was a strange greeting he was sure, but that was what was on his mind, so he thought he'd get it out of the way.  
  
"I told you to keep them. I've got more."

"Right...sorry. These are my friends, Jack, Romeo, and Elmer," he said, pointing to each of them in turn. Morris nodded at them, in acknowledgment his arms folded over his chest. "Do you remember what I told you I had in mind?"  
  
Morris nodded. "Yeah, I remember. You still want it?"

Albert nodded eagerly. "Yes, please....How much did you want for it?" 

Morris shook his head. "No, I don't want your money-"  
  
"Mo-" Oscar began but his brother held out a hand to silence him.

"I'm making you a cake because I want to. If you really like it, then you can pay me, as little or as much as you want."

"Well, that's really generous-" Al started, slightly baffled. He hadn't expected that Morris would do it just because he wanted to, but then again, perhaps he should have suspected it since it was one of his special interests.

"I gotta teach you how to run a business, Mo," Oscar muttered. He snapped the clasps on the toolbox shut and lifted it up. "Youse suppose to make money off it." Morris ignored his brother and he turned his eyes to Elmer and stared him up and down.  
  
"You seem like a lemon kind of guy to me," Morris said. "Or perhaps vanilla.."  
  
Elmer smiled. "Both of those sound good...." He shrugged. "I'm not too picky. What do you recommend?" Morris' eyebrows shot up, clearly invested in giving a good recommendation. He rubbed his thumb and forefingers together excitedly.  
  
"Well, there are lots of flavors. Give me a combo. Cake flavor and icing flavor."  
  
"There are different types of icing," Romeo asked, sounding intrigued. Morris opened his mouth to explain more about the different types of icing, only to be cut short as Oscar's toolbox slammed shut.  
  
"Oh, don't get him started on that," Oscar said. "It ain't that hard to pick what you want to eat. You know what you like, don't you?"   
  
"Why are youse even still here, Oscar," Jack demanded. "This conversation don't involve you." Oscar sneered at him. He stopped on the steps that led to the office.  
  
"I work here, you idiot." The office door slammed shut behind them and the conversation about cake continued.

"I say get chocolate!" Romeo exclaimed. "It is the most romantic of flavors." He winked at Elmer, who blushed and swatted Romeo's hand away as he went to pat Elmer on the back.

"Strawberry-" 

"You two just shut up," Albert demanded. "This is Elmer's cake."

"I--I think I'll go with the lemon. I haven't had one of those in a long time."  
  


* * *

  
Being roommates had its advantages, one of them being that Albert would be the first to wish Elmer a happy birthday and present Elmer his glasses. He knew that later on in the day, or maybe later on in the week, they'd celebrate with the rest of their friends, but Albert liked it when they had time for just the two of them together. He ended up waking Elmer up, too excited to wait until his friend rolled himself out of bed.

"Al, it's too early," he groaned as he rolled over to face away from Albert. Albert hopped onto Elmer's bed and started jumping on the mattress, causing the springs to squeak horrendously.  
  
"C'mon. It's your birthday!"  
  
"Exactly, and I want to sleep in!" he said, pulling the pillow around his ears. "Just one more hour, Al, please!"

He collapsed onto his hands and knees and lied down next to Elmer.

"Please," he whispered as he attempted his best puppy dog eyes, "I've been waiting to give you your gift for such a long time.:" He traced a finger down Elmer's forehead to his nose. Elmer sighed and gave an exaggerated groan as he sat up.  
  
"Fine. Just to make you happy."

Elmer eventually made his way down the stairs to the kitchen, where Albert had the EnChroma glasses waiting in a box. 

"Close your eyes!" Elmer froze, confused, but complied and closed his eyes. He opened the box for Elmer and ripped the packaging off the glasses and then slipped them onto Elmer's face.

"Can I-"  
  
"Not yet."

Gently, he pulled out the cake that Morris had made out of their ridge, although even for being on the larger side for a fridge, it was a tight squeeze for the cake and Albert had had to take out several other items to make it fit. Morris had matched Al's idea to a T, which he was very appreciative of. The cake was rectangular and was decorated with all the colors of the rainbow, each of the colors painted nicely into straight lines. "Happy Birthday, Elmer" had been written in cursive Black gel and yes, there was edible glitter covering the cake.  
  
"Keep your eyes closed," he said. He grabbed Elmer's hand and stood him in front of the cake. "Okay, look down and then open your eyes." The room was silent for a moment, the only sound the ticking of the clock on the kitchen wall. Elmer inhaled heavily and he glanced up from the cake and surveyed the room. He lifted the glasses up and then put them back down. The expression on his face was torture to understand. It wasn't until he saw tears trailing down his friends' cheeks that he felt his heart drop into his stomach.  
  
"....Oh, god." Albert frowned as Elmer wiped tears from his eyes and sniffed back the onslaught of more tears. "Albie..."  
  
"You don't like them," he asked, disheartened. Elmer shook his head and Albert's brow furrowed as he felt his heart stop for an instant in disappointment, still stuck in his gut.  
  
"I don't like them, I love them, Albert!" He lifted the glasses and wiped away more tears. "You didn't have to get me anything!"  
  
"But you're crying," Albert said, his hand going to Elmer's face to wipe away a stray tear. Elmer smiled as a laugh bubbled up from his throat.  
  
"They're happy tears, Albie."

"Oh." He smiled. "Well, then I'm glad I made you cry happy tears."

He enveloped Albert into a hug. Albert hummed, happy for the pressure. Elmer pulled away, ready to apologize for the sudden touch.

"No, it's okay." And he was being honest because the pressure felt nice on his body. Elmer embraced him again, even tighter than before.  
  
"I'll probably never take these off."  
  
"So you can see all the colors?" Albert asked. Despite the rant and raving he'd heard about EnChroma glasses, it wasn't like he would know if they worked since he wasn't colorblind. Elmer nodded.  
  
"All of the colors," he replied happily, "Everything is so beautifully different."

* * *

Later in the day, they brought the cake over to the apartment that Jack shared with Crutchie and Davey. Once the gang had all gathered, they stuck some candles in the cake and sung an off-tune round of "Happy Birthday" to Elmer. Elmer blushed deeply at the congratulations and well wishes from his friends, his eyes still hidden behind the Enchroma glasses.

"Remind me to thank and pay Morris for the cake," Elmer said as he licked the icing off his fingers. "This is really good. The lemon is a definite winner, and it goes really well together with the blueberries in it." Albert hummed in agreement as he skimmed the icing of his piece before eating it. It was actually a really good cake; smooth icing, not too sweet, with a moist base and pleasant aroma. It wasn't overly zesty from the lemons and wasn't super tart from the blueberries.

As the sun finally set, their small part decided to settle in for a movie. Albert ended up on a loveseat, his head resting in Elmer's lap. He was comfortable and had even taken his hat off for more than a moment. About a quarter way into the film, Albert got the feeling of eyes on him and couldn't shake it. He glanced up and caught Elmer staring at him.

"What?" 

Elmer smiled and he smoothed back Albert's hair.

"I don't see you much with your hat off. I never realized how red your hair was." He pulled Elmer's hand away and intertwined their fingers. He frowned as he played with Elmer's fingers; among his siblings, he was the only one that had gotten stuck with bright red hair like his mother, and sometimes it made him self-conscious, hence the hat.  
  
"You think it's weird, don't you?"

"No, Al, I like it."

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading, hope you enjoyed! Kudos and comments are highly appreciated. Feedback on this work, as well as the other works I have up for Newsies, is much appreciated if you feel so inclined to give any; it's been a long while since I posted any fanfiction related content since I've had a horrible time writing and finishing things.


End file.
